20 Claudia:

"Quick, kid. How many arms do I have still attached?"

"Hang on. I'll let you know once I stop seeing doubles."

Secure with the idea that she wasn't dead, Aika relaxed enough to whimper. Sprawled out next to her on the cold ground, Gilder still had a broken cigarette clamped in his teeth.

"I wonder if this means that I've died twice?" Aika giggled. It was stopped short by the ache in her ribs.

"Don't start thinking like that," Gilder warned. "My crew will come for us."

"So what now, Captain?" she asked. "Are we supposed to just wait for them to save us?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Gilder pushed himself up into a sitting position. His cigarette in terrible disrepair, he spat it to the ground. "Are you hurt badly?"

"I don't think so," Aika replied. "I'm just really cold."

"And you look like you've been thrown face first through a wall." Gilder smirked.

"Like you're any better," Aika snorted. "Or will you try to tell me that sexy windblown look was intentional?"

"Depends," Gilder replied. "How sexy is this windblown look?"

"It looks like a Gigas has been chewing on your head," Aika retorted.

"Fair enough." Gilder nodded. He pointed at her head. "You might want to consider braiding those again."

Aika stuck out her tongue.

"At any rate, we should see if we can find that Atarah," Gilder said. "If only to keep us busy."

"Sounds like a good idea." Aika hopped to her feet and immediately regretted it. The girl doubled over with pain and collapsed onto her face. "Oww…"

"What's wrong, Aika?" Gilder asked.

She felt his hands on her shoulders as he gently rolled her onto her back.

"Oww," Aika repeated. "My leg."

"Which leg?" he asked.

Gilder gently examined one leg with his fingers. She glared at him indignantly. He shook his head and moved to the next one. Aika yelped and Gilder nodded his head.

"Broken," he groaned. "Sacri?"

"I could." Aika nodded. "But I'm still exhausted from the crash. I'll need a nice long nap after I heal myself."

"Is that supposed to be an argument against healing yourself?" Gilder asked. "I'm not going to carry you around all of Glacia."

Aika giggled. "I didn't mean that," she said. "I just meant that I'll need some sleep."

"Well, then get to it," Gilder replied. "Go to sleep."

"I'm cold." Aika sulked.

"You knew back on Sailors Island that we were heading to Glacia." Gilder raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought you'd have the sense to at least pick up some knee warmers."

"It's not this cold onboard the ship," she argued weakly.

Gilder shook his head as he took a seat beside her. "Come here," he muttered.

Gilder gingerly held Aika's injured leg above the ground as she squirmed towards him. He undid the buttons to his trench coat and when the girl was nestled safely against his chest, he pulled the coat around them both and buttoned it shut.

"Don't get any funny ideas," Aika warned.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Gilder replied dryly. "Weren't you going to cast Sacri?"

"I'm getting to it."

Her large brown eyes squeezed shut as Aika concentrated. A warm green light enveloped her body only to shoot out at her injured limb. Aika gasped as the heat entered her leg only to leave the rest of her frame shivering.

"Did it work?" Gilder asked.

Aika nodded and grinned weakly. "I'm sleepy," she yawned as the verdant sheen slowly dissipated from her leg.

"I never used to have this much trouble," Gilder muttered.

The Claudia's captain reached up and tugged at the ribbons that held the girl's frazzled braids. As Aika's heavy lidded eyes fluttered shut, Gilder began to finger comb her braids out.

"Tangled mess," he grumbled.

"Gilder?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you run away from Clara?" Aika asked. "It seems like more trouble than it's worth."

"Why did you run away from Crescent Isle?" he replied.

"That's different." Aika sighed. "Besides, Clara's nice. There's a part of me that thinks you two would be right together."

Gilder rolled his eyes. "That part of you probably also finds Vigoro irresistible."

"I can't believe you even mentioned that goon's name." She nuzzled her cheek deeper into the warmth of Gilder's chest. "Clara and Vigoro are in no way similar."

"You and I both avoid them like a plague," Gilder retorted.

"Vigoro's a pig," Aika argued. "Clara's a wonderful lady."

"That's a stretch." Gilder chuckled. "I'd call Clara several things, but wonderful probably wouldn't be one of them."

"Now you're just being mean." Aika's speech was slurred with exhaustion.

"You didn't let me finish," Gilder chided gently. "If I was to call Clara anything, it would probably be idealist, innocent or naïve. Don't tell her I said so, but Clara's a good girl."

Aika twisted around in her seat. Gilder felt the girl's nose lightly graze his chin as she looked up at him.

"If you think Clara's such a good girl, then why do you always run away from her?" she asked.

"I like to think of it as my gift to her," Gilder said.

"That makes no sense," Aika scoffed.

"Sure it does," Gilder replied. "I'd be a fool to actually think Clara loves me. The woman has no idea who I am. She's in love with the idea of me."

"Well, why don't you give her the chance to fall in love with the real Gilder?" Aika asked.

"Because she wouldn't fall in love with the real Gilder," he answered.

"You never know unless you try," Aika urged.

Gilder chuckled. "Maybe you should try taking some of your own advice."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Aika turned away from him and pouted.

Gilder ignored her. "I suppose that makes me a coward in a sense," he continued. "If I let Clara catch up with me, she would learn who I was. She'd hear the obscene nicknames that I've given my crew members, she'd see what I was like after drinking too much loqua, she'd learn how many other women have been in my company for a single night. She'd leave and never look back. The way it is now, Clara has her dream and I'm not completely alone."

"I never thought someone as free spirited as yourself would be afraid of being alone," Aika mumbled.

"I never thought you'd run away from Vyse so we're even," Gilder replied. "Well, maybe you would. If there was treasure involved."

Aika laughed. "You know, you're really not that bad, Gilder. I'm not so certain Clara would want to leave despite your vices."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I don't think that I'd leave if it were me," Aika said.

"Flattery will get you everywhere. Keep it up, kid," Gilder snorted.

He felt the redheaded girl's icy fingers on his chest as she brought herself up to his eyelevel. His eyes looked so small reflected in hers. He could tell that Aika was studying him, her lips pursed in thought.

"Are you really so sad?" she whispered.

"Sometimes," he admitted.

"When I looked to the future, I couldn't see anything for myself other than waiting for nothing," Aika confessed. "But there wasn't really any other place for me to go."

"There are always other places to go," Gilder said. "Like the Claudia. I don't recommend stopping by Glacia for a picnic, though."

"Should I really be part of the Claudia's crew?" she asked.

"It's okay," Gilder said.

He felt Aika's wind burned lips brush against his own. Feather soft at first, Gilder hardly noticed until she pressed harder. Desperation was mingled with the salt of her flesh. Aika dug her fingers into his chest as her untrained mouth sought out the older man's nose, chin, neck.

Gilder gently brought his hands to her shoulders as she nipped his ear and pulled the girl away from him.

"Knock it off," he said sternly.

Aika froze, her eyes wide. "What?"

"You heard me," Gilder replied. "I won't put up with this nonsense."

"I don't understand," she murmured.

"You're a horrible liar," Gilder retorted. "When I look into your eyes I see another man. I'm not going to destroy you on account of another notch in my belt. I've already got plenty."

Aika tried to jerk away but was caught in their shared coat. She settled for a punch to his gut instead.

"I'm not good enough for you! Clara's not good enough for you!" Aika bellowed. "Who is? Don't you try telling me that you run away for her sake. Selfish illusions of grandeur, that's what it is!"

Tears brimmed in the girl's eyes as Gilder sat patiently.

"And you're there trying to pump me full of advice this whole time," she raged. "You know nothing about love and life and sacrifice. The only things you know about are harlots and loqua."

"Her eyes were too blue," Gilder said. "Her lips, too red. Her hair was a frizzy tangled mess that whipped maniacally in the wind. She was one of the only truly alive things in this blasted world."

Aika stopped abruptly. Only a single tear trailed down her otherwise frozen face.

"Who?" she asked.

"Claudia," Gilder replied.

"Is she—"

"Dead? Yeah, but it was one heck of an explosion." Gilder smiled.

"That doesn't sound like something to grin about," Aika whispered.

"We're air pirates; do you really want to die old and safe in your bed?" Gilder asked.

"I never really thought about it," Aika mumbled.

"Everybody dies, you can't escape that," Gilder said. "But not everyone is able to die while simultaneously infuriating the Valuan Navy."

"When did you get to be so smart?" Aika laughed.

"Somebody had to be ever since the old man died," Gilder answered.

"Drachma?"

"What other old man would I be talking about?" Gilder asked.

Aika shrugged and resituated herself against his chest.

"I wasn't sure how you felt about him," she admitted. "Why didn't you ever show up for the funeral?"

"I have my memories of him, I know who he was." Gilder brushed at the girl's hair with a lazy hand. "I didn't want to have to think of a corpse in a box every time I remembered him."

"Gilder?"

"Hmm?"

"I want to go home."